Free Plugin Changes the WordPress Dashboard Right Before Your Eyes!

Eventually WordPress will be running with this idea on their own, but until then, I thought some of you might want something like this...

A few months ago I started hating the color scheme of the WordPress backend. I know this is a completely subjective opinion, but since I work in the WordPress dashboard on a daily basis, I couldn't help but think that it would be so much easier on the eyes if the main content window were the only part that was white. I just felt the sidebar and main window were too similar.

With that in mind, I just decided to take a few hours and created this new plugin to redesign the dashboard. I didn't want to go overboard as that would cause some problems with all of the plugins that make use of the dashboard. However, I think I did just enough to give it a fresh appeal.

First, I update the color scheme of the sidebar. Nothing fancy, just a darker color with lighter text.

Next, I got rid of all the application icons. I did this because most of the third party ones are HiDPI ready anyway. I used an icon font instead and hand-selected each icon from Fontello so that I didn't include a bunch of icons that we didn't need.

I picked a generic icon to represent all third party plugins, but also started the process of targeting some of these plugins and giving them their own font. To date, I have icons for eCommerce systems like WP eCommerce, WooCommerce and JigoShop as well as other widely used plugins like JetPack, BuddyPress, BBPress and even Gravity Forms.

Finally, I gave the toolbar at the top a new look when you're in the admin side. I did this because my original intent was to provide a way to give WordPress a more custom look so that each of my clients would see something unique on their site. If anyone else doing freelance work would like to use it and modify it for their own use, that's great 🙂

So there you have it...if you have any questions, please let me know. This is my first free plugin I've released so I hope that some of you find it useful! Download it here.